106 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
the collection was preserved in exceptionally fine condition and 
is in much better shape than is ordinarily the case. But no 
known method will preserve the beautiful colors and delicacy of 
these exquisite forms of life. An excellent method of collecting 
was to take a water-glass and wade out breast deep in the shal- 
lows near the laboratory and with a dip-net or the hands secure 
the specimens that clung to the stones or were imbedded in the 
sand. These stones were most of them loose and not too large 
to handle, and thus the anemones could be brought, together 
with their support, to the laboratory for study and observation. 
Probably the most conspicuous species secured here was a 
_ Discosoma, which was commonly attached to these stones. The 
disk is about eight inches in diameter, the tentacles very numer- 
ous and knoblike and in many rows on the disk. They are trans- 
lucent brown with a greenish cast, growing in clusters of three 
to five. This is the species that, as mentioned before, was seen 
to capture small crabs. These crustaceans have their habitat 
under the disks of the anemones, but outside of the columnar 
body wall. If they happened to touch the tentacles, however, 
they adhered to their sticky surface and were transferred to the 
mouth. These crabs were taken into the stomach of their cap- 
tors, the nutritive portions digested and the chitinous hard parts 
ejected again from the mouth. Another large actinian lived 
on the sandy bottom, not attached to stones. When dis- 
turbed it would withdraw into the sand, and when retracted. 
its tentacles so closely matched the sand in color as to be 
practically invisible. The tentacles were thrown into curious 
contortions, twists and folds when retracted, so that they had 
the appearance of being branched. There were more than two 
hundred tentacles in a specimen of the average size. The color 
of this anemone was a ‘‘battle-ship’’ gray with the tentacles 
and verruce silver gray, the disk with three or four concentric 
zones of alternating light yellowish gray and dark gray. The 
disk of a fairly large specimen was six and one-half em. in 
diameter. On June 7th, the larve were given off, some of which 
had reached the gastrula stage, while others had advanceed still 
further and had attained some of their primary tentacles. 
Other anemones were borne on the shells of mollusks inhabited 
by hermit crabs. They are one and one-half to two inches in 
